If your wife has been jailed for a murder you’re convinced she didn’t commit, would you try to prove her innocence by any means at your disposal? And if all else fails, would you try to spring her from jail? Russell Crowe, as a Pittsburgh academic, answers both questions in the affirmative in writer director Paul Haggis’s film.
Based on a 2008 French thriller, Pour Elle, this is a definite change of tack for Haggis, who made the Oscar-winning Crash and In the Valley of Elah. But, alas, a bloated one too —Fred Cavaye’s superior French version ran a brisk 35 minutes shorter.
The swelling largely occurs in an interminable first half when Crowe tries to look after his small son (Ty Simpkins), persuades his imprisoned wife (Elizabeth Banks) that he’ll never give up even when she wearily admits the murder to stop him ruining his life, and finally plots the complicated breakout.
Though the film-making is highly professional, with smoky Pittsburgh almost another character, it’s a distinct relief when the literature professor, accustomed to quoting Cervantes about "the triumph of irrationality", manages to fool everyone and make it out of town before a police transport lockdown.
This involves cars, the subway and the local airport and you do hope he’ll manage it with hysterical wife and puzzled child in tow. It’s a thriller placing an ordinary man at its centre, and Crowe strives mightily to seem like one. Good cameos from veteran Brian Dennehy as his father and Liam Neeson, Lenny James and Jason Begby keep things rolling along nicely, at least in the second half.
The Next Three Days
Cert: 12A
